Stock futures up as Spanish yields ease; earnings in focus

Stock index futures rose on Tuesday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a two-day drop, as investors focus on a slew of corporate results and a drop in borrowing costs for Spain.

A better-than-expected Spanish bill sale boosted confidence before a longer-term debt auction later in the week. Spanish debt yields have jumped recently on concerns about the nation's fiscal stability in the latest flare-up of the euro-zone debt crisis.

European stocks gained after the auction and better-than-expected consumer sentiment data from Germany. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading pan-European shares gained 1.1 percent.

One of the chief concerns has been Spain, and if they are able to issue some debt at an acceptable rate, this market can focus on the earnings, and thus far the earnings have been better than expected, said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York.

Today is definitely a household name day for earnings, and that may get some focus - and at least for the time being - can move the euro zone to Page Two.

This week, 86 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report results. According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 34 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results through Monday, 76 percent have reported earnings above analyst expectations.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc fell 1.4 percent to $116.10 in premarket trade after first-quarter earnings fell from a year earlier but were better than many analysts had anticipated, from aggressive cost-cutting and better-than-expected investment banking and trading revenues.

International Business Machines Corp reports earnings after the bell on Tuesday, and investors are hoping strong software demand will make for a repeat of last year's first-quarter performance, when the company raised its full year forecast.

A unit of Toshiba Corp <6502.T> is in talks to buy IBM Corp's point-of-sale terminal business, which includes cash registers, a source familiar with the deal said on Tuesday.

Yahoo Inc is also due to unveil earnings after the close, but the report may be overshadowed by comments from its new chief executive, Scott Thompson, who is expected to lay out his vision for the struggling web pioneer.

Economic data expected Tuesday include housing starts and permits for March from the Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 705,000 annualized rate in March versus 698,000 in February, and a total of 710,000 permits in March compared with 715,000 in the prior month.

At 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), the Federal Reserve releases industrial production and capacity utilization data for March. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a 0.3 percent rise in production and a reading of 78.6 percent for capacity utilization. In the previous report, production was flat and capacity utilization was 78.4 percent.

Apple Inc shares slipped 0.2 percent to $578.99 in premarket trading. Shares of the iPad maker have fallen in five straight session, the longest losing streak for the stock since September.